Art House Asshole

Art House Asshole : Trash Humpers

You know how when you’re wanting to go to the movie theater and you look up all the films that are showing and there are alway at least three that you’ve never heard of, let alone have any interest in seeing? Well, good news! I’ve seen those movies. I spend most of my theater experiences in art house theaters watching those movies that you’ve never heard of and then never watch. Yeah, I’m that hipster asshole. My goal with this is to spread information out about these films, that way you can decide one of the following. “That actually sounds pretty cool! I want to see that now!” or “Man, I’m glad I decided to go see the new superhero movie!”. So without further ado, here is my article and review of Trash Humpers.

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Look. I get it. I mean I don’t get it. But I get it. Some people really like Harmony Korine. There are quite a few people in my film class that genuinely love his filmography. To the point where we started watching Julien Donkey-Boy in my film history class. So I understand that some people see something in Korine’s filmography. So when I talk about this film, understand that I’m not saying my opinion is correct. Your opinion isn’t correct either. But don’t be insulted by this.

This film certainly isn’t for everyone. Trash Humpers follows these four people who go around and shout and attempt to have sex with trash and other inanimate objects. This film also follows the Dogme 95 “Vows of Chastity”. I have my own opinions on Dogme 95, that aren’t particularly positive, but it needs to be said before someone watches this film. And I will fully admit that I have not seen all of the “licensed” Dogme 95 films. I’m sure there are a few that I would enjoy. But between this and Julien Donkey-Boy, I can’t help but strongly dislike a majority Korine’s filmography.

I did some investigation into what I was supposed to take away from this film. It took me a while to find one solid answer, but I did find it. The film is about parenthood, according to the source that I found. It has a similarly understated plot line similar to Lynch’s Eraserhead. I will say that I kind of see that. Or at least I can go along with it. The problem is that, like Lynch, Korine refuses to say what the film actually is. Unlike Lynch, Korine refuses to confirm if anything is true. The one article I read said the fatherhood angle, which in all honesty seems like is the actual smart interpretation of the film. But when the journalist asked Korine about it, he said that he wouldn’t ever say. Which whenever I hear that I assume the director actually doesn’t know what his or her film means. Maybe that isn’t the case here, maybe it is. Either way, it’s bullshit.

Dogme 95’s philosophy that if they take realism to the extreme, they will achieve some kind of connection with the audience for a higher form of story and character. If they sacrifice the general necessary ingredients for a film, they will achieve this connection with the audience. Unfortunately for Trash Humpers, they sacrifice all of this for a film with a minimalistic story and undeveloped characters. Where Dogme 95 can be great if you have a fantastic story or wonderful characters. Something that, where I am not a fan of it, Julien Donkey-Boy has something close to this. But in this film, the stripping of the fantastical elements of a film just exposes how weak and lazy the storytelling and character development is. You have four characters that are almost identical and only one of them actually changes in the film, and you could argue that she doesn’t change at all.

The film is very reminiscent of Jackass, which I accidentally watched as well this week. Throughout the film, you see the four trash humpers do these stupid things, and the camera work around these activities is very Jackass-like. The difference here is that the four trash humpers have zero likability nor do they have anything interesting to keep viewers entertained. The Jackasses at least are likable to the point where you can have fun, almost like you are friends with them. And maybe that’s the point of this film in a weird roundabout way. But it doesn’t matter as Korine would never confirm this.

This film is the worst I’ve seen from Korine. I’m not a big fan of his work, but I don’t hate his work. Clearly, he has an audience that enjoys his work, even if they follow him blindly. And I do very much enjoy Spring Breakers. But there is so little to this work that it doesn’t warrant you sitting through it, even at its brisk 77 minutes. I’m going to continue to watch Korine’s work, and every time I will attempt to figure out what I’m missing. But at this point, I’m getting close to wondering if there is anything there worth looking for.

Art House Asshole : Live by Night

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By the way, I know that I announced that I would be reviewing Dogtooth today. But between getting sick and getting slammed with school, I just couldn’t fit it into my schedule. So I’m reviewing this film this week. Sorry. I’ll review Dogtooth some other time.

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I did the math and I’ve spent 4,260 hours of my life watching movies. That is half of a year. Total, I have spent two percent of my life watching movies. I am currently twenty years old as of writing this review. But when I left the theater from watching this film, I was shocked that I hadn’t aged three years while watching this film. It is that poorly paced. My god.

Live by Night is a two-hour long film, and Ben Affleck’s fourth directorial film. I will say that I am a pretty big Affleck fan. I have loved to adored his three previous films, as a matter of fact, I rewatched The Town earlier this week and absolutely adored it. After Argo, I thought I would be on board for anything Affleck directed next. And when I found out that he was directing a gangster film (one of my favorite sub-genres) I was immediately excited. Then the trailer came out. And I didn’t know what it was about. All I knew was that Ben Affleck played a gangster of some kind and it took place in the Prohibition era (an era of gangster films I’m kind of against). But I didn’t care that I couldn’t figure out what it was about, it was Ben Affleck and Gangsters! What could go wrong! After seeing the film, I still couldn’t tell you what this film is about. So yeah. That went wrong.

Live by Night, the four and a half-hour-long film follows the Irish son of Police Captain in Boston as he descends into the life of a gangster. There really isn’t much else beyond that. It seems silly to call it this, but Live by Night, the six hours and ten-minute long film, might be best described as a slice of life gangster film. At first, you think that it will be a revenge film, which I was super on board for! Ben Affleck going against the Irish mob for leaving him to die in prison! Yeah! Badass! Let’s do it! But then Ben Affleck goes to jail, gets sad, then moves to Florida. And he doesn’t really give a crap about the guys that tried to kill him. But whatever. Live by Night, the twelve-hour long film feels a lot like the Mafia video game series. You follow this one Mafia/Mob member as he goes from mission to mission and does the daily work of a mob member. But without one big overall story.

The two things that continuously bugged me about Live by Night, the 25-hour long film, were the sound mixing and Ben Affleck’s accent. Both are all over the place or nonexistent. There is a narration throughout the film that I hated because although it was all exposition, I still had trouble following what was happening. And because in the beginning I just couldn’t hear it. Some scenes I could hear the narration, some scenes I had to listen real close to figure out what he was saying. By the end of Live by Night, the 36-hour long film, I stopped paying attention to the narration because I honestly just didn’t care anymore. Ben Affleck, who plays the son of an Irish man, and it appears that his whole family is Irish and that everyone around him is Irish, and all of these people have Irish accents, yet Ben Affleck doesn’t have an Irish accent. Except he does in some scene and/or words. I honestly couldn’t tell if Ben Affleck was Irish or not. But again, I really don’t care.

With this being based on a novel, one that I have no read, I imagine things were cut from the film. And with that, there are part of Live by Night, the 47-hour long film, that I see no purpose for, but I imagine played a much larger role in the novel. For example, Elle Fanning and Chris Cooper’s characters. I know why they were in the film, and they are a plot point. But that’s all they ever felt like. They just served as a way to get from Point A to Point B. They didn’t feel like characters. They didn’t feel like people. They felt like plot points.

You could argue that you might ignore all of these problems in Live by Night, the 68-hour long film. Maybe you just want some mindless action and gangster violence on screen. There is typically one gangster film a year and you need your fix. I get it. But don’t get it here. The thing with action films that you don’t get with this film is the sense of why it is happening. None of the characters are developed enough for you to really care when a shoot out is happening. Theoretically, you should care where there is a shoot out because you want Person A to be killed and Person B to survive. But in Live by Night, the 139-hour long film, not only did I not care who was shooting at who, but I also didn’t know who they were. In the final shootout of the film, some of the choreography was nice, but I only knew the Ben Affleck character. I knew of the other characters, but I couldn’t tell which character was which and there were points where I didn’t know who died when I’m pretty sure I was supposed to.

I’m willing to give Ben Affleck the benefit of the doubt on this one. I’ve read there were significant cuts to the film. To the point where entire characters were cut, such as Ben Affleck’s character’s brother, who was played by Scott Eastwood. So maybe there was some studio meddling. If 2016 will go down as anything, it will be the year we learned that Warner Brothers likes to mess around with a directors vision, so I won’t completely eliminate the possibility.

But Live by Night, the seven-year long film, is still pretty bad. And I have actively told people that they shouldn’t waste their time with it. Go watch The Town. Go watch Gone Baby Gone. Go watch Argo. Those films are some of the best stories and films made in the 2000s. This will not join the ranks, but that doesn’t discredit Ben Affleck’s accomplishments as a director. He’s still good, but he had to release something to keep him in check.

Art House Asshole : Aaaaaaaah!

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I’m pretty sure I haven’t reviewed an experimental film on here yet. But that record is out the window! Sorry, films with a narrative plot structure and character development! Y’all are going to have to take a back seat to this stupid ass film! Eat your heart out David Fincher! Take a breather Charlie Kaufman! There is a new director in town! And his name is Steve Oram! Now lets mercilessly tear this film apart.

There have been a lot of films in the past couple years that take an interesting concept and run with it. Most of the time, they run too far. A couple examples of this are The Love Witch, Shangri-la Suite, and Victoria. Every time I read the description of the film or watch the trailer for the film and think “Wow! That sounds interesting!” And then I see the film and realize that those films are exactly that. They are great concepts. That doesn’t mean they succeed at pulling these concepts into completion.

Aaaaaaaah! is about the fact that we are all animals deep down. Asking the question of are we truly more evolved than the rest of the animal species. The answer is yes. Obviously. Evidence that we are the only species that have created a movie about if we are truly more evolved than other species.

The film is just under 80 minutes, which is the perfect time length for something like this. It is still feature length while also not being too long. Whereas something like The Love Witch over stays its welcome at almost two hours long, this doesn’t get too long, except in at minute seven. That doesn’t make sense. Well here is the thing, this film is a slice of life for a world where we never evolved to talk. We only talk in grunts. There is no dialogue in the film, just a bunch of people talking like animals and going about their daily lives.

In the first five minutes of the film I was thinking “Oh, I get it”. Then at the sixth minute, I was like “Yeah. I get it, let’s move on”. Then I completely lost my mind. I don’t know if it was the film or if it was the fact that I watched this film at three in the morning. But once I got used to what this movie was doing, I immediately couldn’t stop laughing. In a good way. Not in a bad White Girl way. This film is a comedy and my god is it hilarious. I lost my mind along with the film and it was one of the biggest laughs I’ve had with a film in a while. Should I have laughed that hard? Probably not. Any sane person would have turned the film off.

But I didn’t.

I’m insanely not smart. Which is why I sat through the entire thing and had an amazing time. Will you have a good time? No. You probably won’t. Unless you are extremely tired, on drugs, or are just into weird things.

I don’t have much else to say about this film. It clearly didn’t have a lot of funding for it. It shouldn’t have much more than it got. And you can see that. I have explained what this film is exactly. Normally this is something that would normally be called “pretentious”, but in execution, this is far too stupid to be called pretentious.

Art House Asshole : Reality

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Is this what insanity feels like? I’m pretty sure this is what insanity feels like. I’m not sure what I expected walking into this film. I’ve seen a couple other films by Quentin Dupieux. And it’s not like he’s known for his standard narrative structure. And this film is Dupieux’s darkest and most serious. But I’m pretty sure that if I ever start viewing life in a way where Dupieux’s filmography makes sense, I’ve probably gone insane.

This is normally where I would explain the plot to the film to give you an idea of what this film is about. It also is to inform you if this film would be up your alley. The biggest plot line that this film has going for it is that it follows this maybe film director who wants to make a horror film. The only catch is that he needs to find the perfect scream. So that’s what I would put in the synopsis box. But that is maybe fifty percent of the film. The rest of it I’m not even going to try to explain. If I tried you would just get confused and honestly I would probably get confused as well.

It’s hard to describe this film for a couple reasons. Dupieux is in a strange group of filmmakers that I can’t really put a title on. He doesn’t fit into the Sundance crowd of mumblecore or indie-darling filmmakers. He doesn’t fit into the Cannes group of filmmakers who make art and what most people call pretentious. And he certainly doesn’t fit into the Fall Season Film Festival crowd who make oscar bait type films. He kind of exists in his own universe of filmmakers. Which I love, he makes whatever he wants. Say what you will about Dupieux’s filmography (if you aren’t aware he is the director of Rubber and Wrong and Wrong Cops), but the fact that he does whatever he wants is why when you watch his films you get pure “art”.

The film doesn’t make sense for the most part. You can put it together once the film starts winding down, but I write this a day after watching it. And I will say that there are parts that I genuinely don’t understand how they fit in. If you have seen the film, I’m specifically talking about Eric Wareheim’s character. I don’t understand his purpose or why he is in the film. I see how he connects to the main characters. But I have no idea as to why he is here. And normally this would be a problem. But with Dupieux, his filmmaking style is so different, that might be the point. Maybe Eric Wareheim is only in this film as a red herring. I don’t know! And that’s why I really like Dupieux’s filmography and specifically this film.

I understand if you are the kind of person that needs a film to be wrapped up when you finish watching it. But my personal taste in film is that I like a film to have an aftertaste. Something that keeps me thinking for a long time. And that is what I got with Reality. Do I understand it? God no. And where you might have that anger you, I was really into it. A film like this allows you to really make the film out to whatever you want to be. It’s the closest I can imagine to a film being pleasing for everyone. But in that sense, it pleases no one. Because I know only a very select group of people will be interested in this kind of film. And those that might be interesting in this kind of film will be turned off by the style. So really, the film can work for anyone, but will only work for maybe a solid seven people.

Where Rubber, Wrong Cops, and Wrong are all comedies, this film is very much a darker and more serious film. There is comedy to it, but it is a lot more subtle and hidden than the rest of Dupieux’s filmography. Even if you have seen the rest of his work, this still might not work for you. The dark tone and surrealist narrative are very much present and strong from beginning to end. So let this review be a warning.

I am recommending this film. But probably not to you. I liked the film. But I am one of the seven people that will like this film. You most likely aren’t. So I am recommending this to you if you have a very similar mindset to me. If not, avoid this film. Because you will probably hate it. But that’s how this guy works. You either love Dupieux or you hate Dupieux. But regardless, it’s Dupieux without a doubt.

Art House Asshole : Kate Plays Christine

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I wanted to review one last documentary before the new year. So I picked this film due to its reviews and talk since it came out. And now that I finished watching the film, I’m debating if I should quickly watch another film because I’m not sure whether or not this is actually a documentary. Which is a problem for me. But let’s get into that because this is a bizarre film that I haven’t seen anything else like before.

Kate Plays Christine follows Kate Lyn Sheil an actress who has had somewhat in-and-out success in the indie/mumblecore wave of filmmakers. Kate begins preparing for her new role, playing Christine Chubbuck, a 1970s news anchor who killed herself live on television. The film follows Kate as she investigates Christine and learns as much about her as she does about herself. I’m vomiting as I write that sentence.

Many have called this film a thriller documentary as you see Kate slowly lose her mind while trying to figure out who Christine Chubbuck was. If get a glimpse into what certain actors go through to prepare for a role, and interestingly enough you see what it is like for someone like Kate Lyn Sheil who hasn’t had wide success by any means, who you could argue is desperate for success or at least desperate for a good performance. This sounds fascinating. This is something that you can read about and see stories of how certain actors prepare and whatnot. And those stories can take you down a dark road. The only problem with this film is that it REEKS of the fact that it is staged.

This film being staged is something that I’ve seen a lot of critics say is just part of the film and some people say is what makes the film interesting. And I am kind of disgusted by that. It is unclear what is real and what is fake in the film. One major thing that bothered me throughout the film is that you see Kate prepare for this role for this “soap opera feeling” movie or whatever it is, but it becomes increasingly clear that this project either doesn’t exist or exists solely for this “documentary” to see Kate’s process, I have found no sources on what this project is if it is real or if it is ever going to be released. The process that Kate is putting herself through doesn’t matter if there isn’t a project. The documentary talks to the other actors in the fake movie but if the fake movie doesn’t exist they why the hell are we talking to them?

This film came out at the same time as another film about Christine Chubbuck, Christine directed by Antonio Campos of Simon Killer and Afterschool fame. I will say that I have yet to see this film but have an interest in it due to Campos’s involvement alone. And what drew me to watching this film before that one is the fact that this is a documentary. But once it became clear to me that this wasn’t a documentary, I just felt scammed out of it. Why not make a documentary on Rebecca Hall who played Christine Chubbuck in Christine? Hall has gotten a lot of praise for her performance in that role, and I’m sure it would have been interesting to see her process. But the issue in that is that might not have fit the disgusting narrative that Robert Greene, the director of Kate Plays Christine might have wanted.

I rarely use this word seriously because I feel it is often unwarranted. But this is the most pretentious film I think I have seen all year. The narrative that Greene gives in this film not only mocks and insults Christine Chubbuck, a woman who the film has been telling her life story to the entire time in a way that made me sympathize with her. But the film also insults the audience by saying “Why do you want to see this actress portray this character?” Probably because you faked an entire god damn film to give a narrative about someone you didn’t understand or like. You can focus on the morbid curiosity of death in societies eyes. That’s fine. But don’t act like you are so god damn above it. All of the themes and morals to this film could have been put in a narrative scripted film and I would have liked that film better. But the fact that this film has the audacity to call itself a documentary when what appears to be at least seventy percent of it is staged is sickening.

I haven’t seen the rest of Robert Greene’s filmography, so I don’t know if he is immune from the “Why are you so amused by despair and death” but after this two-hour session of him masturbating on camera I will probably actively avoid watching the rest of his filmography. This film is insulting on multiple levels. Not only is it one of the worst films I’ve seen all year, this is probably one of the worst “documentaries” I’ve probably ever seen. I’ll probably do a review of Christine as well to see how that stacks up to this film. But my god, what a complete disaster.

Art House Asshole : Into the Inferno

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Werner Herzog is a great filmmaker. He has created a lot of great films in his lifetime. He is a very influential figure in the cinematic world. He makes a lot of films, more than the standard director. He can switch back and forth between a narrative fiction film and a documentary film very easily, which is a very difficult thing to do as a director. That being said, I just don’t get it. Almost none of his films connect with me. I know that people love this man, and I wish I did too. But there is just something about his filmography that I can’t wrap my head around. So when I critique this film, keep that in mind. If you are the kind of person that will watch a Herzog film no problem, then that’s great. But my god was this film a chore for me.

Into the Inferno follows volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer as he and Werner Herzog travel around the globe analyzing volcanos and the surrounding area of the volcano. It essentially becomes Clive and Werner traveling around the world to different places, looking at the volcanoes, talking to the people in the surrounding area about the volcano, going “wow that is a great volcano”, then moving on to the next volcano. The film is great for information if that is what you are going for. I relate this film to something you would see on the Discovery Channel or the National Geographic Channel. So if that is what you want this will be great. But it just never captured me.

This is a beautifully shot film, I will say that much. The actual footage of the volcanoes in the film are extremely beautiful. And it is something that I haven’t seen before. I don’t have much context to this film and the filmmaking process but since this is something I haven’t seen before it wouldn’t be shocking if it came out that this was a difficult shoot, or even they invented some kind of new method of filming for it or something. So if you want some extraordinary filmmaking with the volcanoes, check this film out.

There really isn’t anything wrong with the film. It isn’t like it is poorly made like I said earlier, it is a very well shot film. The subjects are all interesting, except for maybe Clive but at the same time I’m not into volcanoes so I can’t really complain. I watched this film because I would like to see more Herzog films and with this being his most recent release it would be good. But there really isn’t a story. It is just “Look at this volcano!” then “Look at this volcano!”. The only major flaw I can find with the film is that it gets pretty repetitive. Maybe that is why I was so bored. Maybe it’s because I really don’t care about volcanoes.

This review is pretty pointless.

I’m realizing as I write this that this is a pretty stupid review because I have absolutely no opinion on this film. I think it’s boring and repetitive. But since I wasted an entire page repeating this, I might as well review something in great detail. Hell, this will be one of the last reviews of the year so I might as well give you something interesting to read about.

So I decided that I’m going to write about the live action Scooby-Doo movie from 2002. This is also a film that recently entered my top ten films of all time. Why? Because it’s incredible. That’s why. Sure the studio meddled and messed with a bit of the writing, so the film wasn’t an R-rated comedy completely making fun of Scooby-Doo. But is that really what we need in a film? Do you really want to see a film mocking one of the greatest cartoons of all time? No. You think you do because you’re edgy and think you’re tough. There is a lot of subtlety in this film where you find that original drive to mock and or parody the original cartoon. While also being a lot that I loved when I was a child and saw the film in theaters. I loved this film when it was in theaters. And I love it now for completely different reasons. And if you think this film is stupid then you don’t understand pure art.

Anyway. I don’t recommend Into the Inferno. I one-hundred percent think you should give Scooby-Doo a second chance. Because it’s Christmas and Scooby needs your help.

Art House Asshole : Under the Sun

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North Korea is interesting for thirty minutes. This is an exaggeration, but my meaning behind this is that the state of North Korea is fascinating. But after awhile, you learn everything there is to know about North Korea. Once you understand the Korean War and the dynasty of the Supreme Leader, that’s really it. And those things are interesting, but there really hasn’t been any real developments with the country that warrant a huge expose. We know North Korea has a horrible dictatorship. We know North Koreans don’t have basic human rights. We know all of these things. So this feels kind of like a re-tread.

Under the Sun follows(?) filmmakers as they make an approved documentary for the North Korean government about a little girl living in the country. From this you see how the footage is manipulated and how they set things up to be perfect and reflect what they want you to see. There are no talking heads. There is no narration. There is nothing stereotypically “documentary” about this film. You just see a lot of uncut footage for the most part. So the film gives off more of a surreal vibe to it. You just kind of float from scene to scene. Which is really fun and interesting for the first thirty minutes. Then you get the point. And you start wondering “Geez, is this what all of the film is?”

Yes. That is what the rest of the film is.

I think it is a really interesting concept. And it isn’t even that I think it is poorly executed. I genuinely think you can’t pull this concept off. The idea of a film where you see all of the stuff that the North Korean government, or any government for that matter, wants to cut out, is an interesting one. But, you have to remember why deleted scenes exist. When you have a copy of your favorite movie and you watch the deleted scenes, you might think “Oh that was fun!” but you also realize why those scenes were cut. They didn’t add much to the film. They were fluff. They were pointless. And Under the Sun is just deleted scenes. So at the end of the day you have to ask yourself “Is a film of deleted scenes pointless?” And that question can be answered in multiple ways.

I could get past this if Under the Sun said anything new. But it doesn’t. If you know anything about North Korea, you are going to be thinking “Yeah, I know.” and “Yeah, I get it.” This isn’t some kind of mind-melting film where you are going to realize something new about the situation. This is saying everything you already know and then it just ends. To the point where I wouldn’t even say that I watched this film. It would be more accurate to say I just stared at my computer screen for two hours until this film stopped playing.

I wouldn’t recommend checking this film out. It stays far beyond it’s welcome and I can’t say that it does so with grace. If the concept sounds cool to you, maybe watch the first fifteen minutes and then decide if it captivates you to watch the rest of it. For me at least, that didn’t happen. And the North Korean Film Interest if very quickly losing its charm across the board for all film.

Art House Asshole : Silence

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This is a film that Martin Scorsese has been trying to make for over twenty years. He started making this film two years after The Last Temptation of Christ. This is surprising for a couple different reasons. One, upon watching this film the themes and character motivations are different from what Scorsese is known for. There is no crime, there is no anti-hero. If you were to show this film to someone who wasn’t obsessed with cinema, but someone who knew Martin Scorsese and Goodfellas and Taxi Driver and all of his other well-known films, I’m not sure if they would be able to tell that this is a Scorsese film. I can tell, and we’ll get into that. But this is a step away from what Scorsese is known for. And that isn’t a bad thing.

Silence follows two Portuguese Priests who travel to Japan during the Shimabara Rebellion to save their mentor, who has apparently renounced God and the faith. First, let’s just get this out of the way, the film isn’t violent. This is the first instance of this being out of Scorsese’s wheelhouse. Yes, there is blood in parts, and I know that Scorsese doesn’t use hyper violence or gratuitous violence. But this film is a much more emotionally draining film. My god is this film depressing and intense. The film is essentially Christian Torture Porn. You see the main character’s faith pushed so far and the consequences for doing this. It is honestly numbing after awhile. And when there are violence and/or blood, it is used in such a way that it feels not only earned but as a final nail in a coffin. One of the deaths in the film is so moving because there isn’t any violence or blood. It just happens. And you just have to sit there and let it sink in.

The film is still Scorsese’s though. The big thing that allows you to see his vision is that camera movement. He still has his quick pans and dolly shots. To the point where I can see some people seeing it as distracting. It’s a double-edged sword. We have come so far with Scorsese that we associate those camera tricks with his fast paced action in Goodfellas and Wolf of Wall Street. It almost pulls me out when I see them in this film as the tone and subject matter is so different from his other films.

But this being a passion project for Scorsese makes sense as it is a filmmaker’s film. You can show your buddy Ralph who drives trucks for a living and has a Michael Bay film in his top ten films of all time Goodfellas and Ralph will love it. That is partly why Scorsese is so successful. He can make a fantastic film that non-film lovers can enjoy. This is a slow burning almost three-hour long film about a Priest trying to remain faithful. Ralph isn’t going to like this film. And I will tell you right now, this isn’t one of Scorsese’s best films. It is pretty middle-tier of his filmography. What I will say is that this is one of the, if not the, best shot film Scorsese has ever made. People have said that this is Scorsese’s epic. And they are right. The shots of Japan (which is actually Taiwan for budgeting reasons) are absolutely gorgeous. Every shot in this film feels like a painting from the time period this film takes place. The colors are gorgeous. The use of space is genius. I almost feel like everyone else this year shouldn’t even try, this is the best shot film this year without a doubt.

Very quickly, before we get into my problems with the film, I want to mention the sound design. I saw this with a couple of my friends and no one mentioned this to me but I want to mention it. This film sounds phenomenal. And for a film called Silence it should. I can’t recall if it had any kind of soundtrack or score outside of drums played by the characters (another Scorsese-ism that is missing), but the sound design almost carries this film. The tone is set by it. There were scenes that I felt cold because the characters felt cold and all of that is because of the sound design. So props to the sound department. My god was that amazing.

My only big issue with the film is that there is some pretty bad CGI in the film. There is one shot of them sailing to Japan that is pretty heavy CGI. And normally that wouldn’t be an issue, but for a film that shot on location for a majority of the process and looks gorgeous, that shot sticks out like a sore thumb. There is also another scene that involves a puddle that I would describe too much of to avoid spoilers, but my god is that the worst scene in the film because of the CGI in that scene. You will know what I mean once you see it. It is without a doubt the biggest problem with this film. Which isn’t big, but I rolled my eyes when that part happened.

There is also voice-over work throughout the film. The voice over is done my multiple people and multiple characters. And it is easy to get confused at parts. There were a couple different times that I thought to myself “Is this VO or is this what he is saying out loud?” and that can get confusing. And without spoiling something, there is a character at the end that has a VO that is one of the cheesier moments I’ve seen in a film this year. It is the scene where you understand why the film is called “Silence”, and I think it works for the most part. But the scene was pretty silly. Some of my friends weren’t bothered by this, so it might just be me being an asshole. But that is what I thought.

Overall, Silence is a great film that film-lovers will adore and casual movie-goers might be split on. It reminds me a lot of last years The Revenant. Some people will love it for the technicality. And others will just think it’s a waste of three hours of their life. How you decide really depends on how you look at movies. And I’m not going to tell you what you should think.

Art House Asshole : Winter on Fire

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I’m glad I decided to dedicate this month to documentaries. As much as I like documentaries, I rarely go out of my way to actually watch them. But one thing I’ve always said about documentaries is that it is almost unfair to compare them with Narrative Fiction Films. Last year in my Filmsplosion, I had one documentary on my list. And this year there will be at least one documentary in my last. Documentary has a certain power to it. The power of knowing, this is real. Even when you see a “Based on a True Story” film, it still feels like a movie. Documentaries tend to hit me like a ton of bricks. And this one is no exception.

Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom is a Netflix produced documentary on a lot of different things surrounding Ukraine, but primarily Euromaidan Protests. At the end of the day, though, this film is basically a “How Ukraine Got This Fucked: The Movie”. It gives a brief history of Ukraine from its independence in the early 90s, to basically just before the Russian Invasion. And the end of the film is basically “Ukraine is fucked and no one cares”.

This film is good for the same reason Last Days of Vietnam is good. It gives you a peak into this world that you aren’t part of, and are also unaware of how bad it is. If you have been participating or supporting or complaining about all the political protest happening around the 2016 US Election, understand those protesters are nothing compared to the protesters in this film. What starts as a simple college protest in this film evolves into was would be described less as a protest and more as a full out war. When you see the brutality of the police and the people, it is honestly horrifying. It shows how the police were told to switch from plastic batons to iron batons when the protests were primarily peaceful. There isn’t much to say about the film besides the fact that it is both horrifying and powerful.

One major downside to the film is that you start to get lost in what is happening in the film. For an American Director, Evgeny Afineevsky whom also directed Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!! (No really), it tackles a lot of Ukrainian history. To the point where it is very easy to think “Oh are we still talking about this president or this president?” or “Are we still learning about the Orange Revolution or is this a separate thing?” The film is painted with a very broad stroke. I’ve seen some people say that the film is only telling one side of the story. I didn’t think this but then again I knew almost no Ukrainian history prior to watching this film. So I was essentially spoon-fed Ukrainian history with this film, and it is very easy to give one side of a story if you are teaching it.

There really isn’t a lot for me to say about this film. If you aren’t following the events, or if you knew about the events but didn’t really understand it, or if you didn’t know Ukraine was a country, then I recommend this film. It gives you a nice one-two punch of quick history, even if you won’t follow some of it. You might walk out with a couple questions, but you will also be much better informed about the basics of the situation in Ukraine. Which is a horribly interesting situation.

Art House Asshole : Welcome to Leith

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As a heads up, I’m dedicating December to Documentary Films. Sorry if you hate documentaries and or the month of December. But that’s what’s going to happen.

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I think horror is a fascinating genre. I think the same thing about Documentaries. When the two blend together, I usually have a good time. This is exactly what happened with this film in particular. Welcome to Leith tells the story of the small town of Leith, North Dakota. Leith was a quiet, nice, and friendly town. No one was really interesting, but they were happy. Then a white supremacist came and decided to buy out the land of the town and turn it into a Neo-Nazi World Hub, forcing the town out of their own homes. That’s right. It’s the same thing that Ray Croc did. But instead of Hamburgers and French Fries, it’s Swastikas and Hatred.

The film is attempting to tell you something that isn’t as obvious as you might think. Yes, Neo-Nazis are really bad. And what this guy is doing is absolutely disgusting. You see him talk about his beliefs and they are shocking. You read what he has written online and that’s even worse. The subject matter of this film is honestly disturbing and haunting. That being said, he never did anything illegal for the most part. The takeaway for this film isn’t “Nazis are bad.” Everyone already knows that Nazis are bad. And as interesting and haunting as the story is, that isn’t the point. If you just wanted to tell a story, you make a narrative film. This was made because the point isn’t that “This is bad” but that “This is legal”. That is what makes this film impactful. The film is showing this to you as a way of saying “This shouldn’t be legal, but currently it is.”

Another aspect of this film that should be mentioned, is that the film isn’t just bashing Neo-Nazis throughout. The film is clearly against Neo-Nazis, as it should. But it doesn’t appear to paint the rest of the town in a glowing light either. You are on the side of the town for most of the film, or at least you should be if you aren’t a Neo-Nazi. But, despite their clear hatred and bigotry, the Neo-Nazis are just living for most of the film. They are flying their flags and are clear in their plan to take over the town. But when a fight breaks out, they are not the ones who start it. The real horror of these people is their control and their organization. At one point in the film, one of the Neo-Nazis says “I want to kill these people, but I’ll wait until they hate me enough to kill me.” Which is scary, but his completely legal.

You also see the town, and rightfully so, fight back and try to stop what is happening. At one point, and spoilers I guess so skip to the next part of the review if you don’t want spoilers, but they burn down one of the Neo-Nazi’s homes. With all of this, I thought to myself, what would I do if I was in the Neo-Nazis shoes. Now hear me out on this. I’m not a Neo-Nazi. But if I was living in a town, where everyone was a Neo-Nazi, but I believed in equality and whatnot, I would be pretty pissed and think it would suck if they burned my house too. At one point at the end of the film, the main guy tells the camera crew “I just want to be left alone. Why can’t they just let an odd old man be to himself”. Which is a good point. I’m not for the man, but the film does show the perception of his sympathy, whether the filmmakers intended that or not.

I can’t remember if it was in this film or another, I watched this as a series of multiple films on Neo-Nazis and white supremacy, but there is a quote that says “The biggest key in fascism is victimhood”. And part of what this film does is give both sides victimhood. You see each member of the town outside of this conflict. You also see members of the Neo-Nazi movement outside of this conflict. The film humanizes the Neo-Nazis to a point that would make some people uncomfortable. It is really easy to look at Neo-Nazis as cartoon villains. But once you see them raising their kids and see them beyond their horrible beliefs, that’s when the horror really sets in. Because that’s when you realize they aren’t that different from you.

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